Archive for November, 2010

Conventional Evangelical thought suffers from its “boxing” of questions; a kind of dumbing-things-down. This is great if you are trying to explain a concept or notion to someone who has not considered the matter and needs a conceptual leg up, but bad if you think that the “box” is the end all and be all of the thing. A common example of this is the ‘false dilemma” — the “biblical dating” paradigm of Josh Harris being an apropos example (either you do this way, or you do it that way; forgetting all these other ways.)

You will get your ass kicked in the marketplace of ideas, and in the marketplace of life, if you do not train and develop your mind so that you know not only how to frame matters properly, but also so that you can know when someone else has not done this, and has framed a matter such that they can lead you to certain conclusions.

..Thus I commend to you the study of Philosophy. This is not a vain matter; a mere arguing about words*. I mean to say that you are to use the mind God gave you, as you use the body He gave you.

Super great post from Ransomed Heart ministries. This is one of my pet peeves; it does great damage to the integrity of a man’s heart to stray like this. …..Perhaps I feel so strongly about it because I was taught this kind of Christian culture and had to be delivered from it. I think of this sort of thing as a “stealth” failure — it steals in stealthily and then will steal from you. Read it several times – don’t assume you know what the essay is about because you’ve read the title. So important, that I’ve elevated this idea to a Credo.